If you haven't considered using Pinterest in your online marketing, allow me to offer you 4 compelling reasons to rethink that decision.

Pinterest is one of my favorite social media platforms.

It's truly unlike any of the other social platforms out there (spoiler: its no longer a social media platform!). Let's dive into some of the favorite reasons I share with my clients to encourage them explore Pinterest in their marketing, and perhaps will encourage you too!

It's a search engine

Pinterest is no longer a social media site (although we'll continue to use it like one - ie: build a following, follow others, and find information through pockets of communities), it considers itself a visual discovery tool, or more simply a search engine.

“At the base, we are a visual bookmarking service that helps people really cover things that are related to their interests,” says Gene Alston, Pinterest’s Head of Business Development

Pinterest's search is incredibly powerful. It's easy to use (often autofilling in popular searches just like Google) because it's visual it makes searching for things inspiring and exciting and best of all an excellent way to discover things.

For businesses this means that their products and services can get in front of the right eyeballs much quicker than the way other platforms serve up content.

Your content has a much longer shelf life

I think hands down this is one of my favorite examples of why Pinterest is a great platform. Because Pins last forever, your content has a much longer shelf life. Pinterest does an excellent job of actively putting and keeping your content in front of the right people.

Pinterest makes it easy for your content to not only reach people far and wide, but for a very long time. Because of the way Pinterest's Smartfeed (its algorithm) works, content lasts for days, weeks, months, and even years. This is much different than the the seconds or days the other platforms offer your content.

Pinterest knows that its users use the platform to search and find things, so it works to get the right content in front of the right users. No other platform does this, in fact other platforms push down content (Umm, hello Facebook!). Knowing this, Pinterest is literally a marketer's wonderland!

Pinners are open to marketing

Two thirds of content saved on Pinterest comes from businesses. Pinners use the platform to take action: to create, to aspire to, to cook, and to buy for example. Users are always looking for new inspiration on the platform, that's exactly why they use it. This is not so on other platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

If it's one thing I hear time and time again from small businesses about online marketing it's that they are anxious about selling. They fear looking annoying or being too "sales-y" on other social media platforms. But with Pinterest, people are there to discover, to create, and to buy. This means they're open to tasteful, creative marketing.

[Tweet " Pinterest is not so much about projecting a look but aspiring to one. Perfect for marketing."]

Pinterest is personal

One of the biggest complaints you'll hear from users about social media is how fake or inauthentic it is. That people share things on social media to posture or look a certain way.

Pinterest is not like that. Because of the way Pinterest is set up (a never ending feed, the option of having numerous boards to house different content) it allows its users to share and save a variety of different types of content.

Here's a quote that captures how Pinterest works perfectly:

“Pinterest is for yourself, not your selfies” - Ben Silbermann, Founder of Pinterest

I love this quote! It's really true. Pinterest is a platform people use to discover things and add to their life. They're looking for new styles, DIY projects, recipes, new clothing, decorating and on and on - so it's not so much about projecting a look but aspiring to one.

This is an excellent advantage for marketing and getting in front of people that really want to see your products and use your services. It's also an opportunity to build relationships with your customers because Pinterest is so personal.

So! Those are just a few of my favorite reasons why I encourage businesses to look into Pinterest for their marketing. It's an exciting place to explore for small businesses for all of the above reasons.

If you're interested in learning more about how you can use Pinterest in your marketing efforts I'll be hosting a live online workshop, Pinterest for Your Online Business.